About Us

Jace Vernon is a Co-Founder (and some say the runner-boy) of Ydraw. He takes care of the day to day tasks to keep Ydraw a video-making-machine. He managed to graduate with an MBA in Business (which doesn’t mean much), though his real education came from the school of hard knox. Multi millionaire by age 26, broke by age 29, back on track at 30. He is a true entrepreneur and considered “unemployable”. Some of his greatest accomplishments include dunking a basketball, getting a hole-in-one, reading 150 business books in a year, and winning the football city league. Such a rough life… but somebody has to live it! Triumphing, conquering, and failing in great business endeavors created amazing building blocks for Ydraw. Of course he has no idea how he ended up in the Video Business but that is what makes it so interesting. It’s all a mystery. Jace is here to serve you and would love to help in any way he can. You Can Read More About Jace Vernon Here

Curtis Pace is also a Co-Founder (or the brains) of Ydraw. Born and raised in Coalville, Utah, he loves big trucks, working on the farm, and spending time with his family. At heart he is also an entrepreneur, enjoys hard work, and loves to see it pay off with happy customers. Some of his tasks include editing, drawing, production, layouts, customer service, and keeping Jace in line. Curtis’ greatest quality is his attention to detail, he does not release any video if its not close to perfect. The University of Utah gave him a degree because of his amazing good looks but many of us at the office question its validity. His greatest accomplishment is setting the all-time world record for laying sprinkler pipe. He is fast, efficient, and he knows it. Curtis is Always willing to help,and he loves producing fun, fantastic videos. It is his passion!

Mark Swan, Head Artist at Ydraw, and an extremely talented and well-known artist, is an extremely valuable part of Ydraw. Most agree that he is the real talent behind Ydraw, and we would probably be lost without him. Mark makes sure all the artwork is just how the clients envisioned it. With more than 20 years of experience working in the animation industry, he specializes in story and visual development. He has provided his talents in projects for Universal Studios, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Studios, and MGM, with credits including An American Tail, Land before Time I-IV, Space Jam, A Goofy Movie, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Rock-a –Doodle, Thumbelina, A Troll in Central Park, and Cats Don’t Dance. Wait, we’re not done… he has also worked on various television series such as Thundarr the Barbarian, The Incredible Hulk, and The Smurfs. It seems like each week we uncover more of Mark’s unlimited supply of artistic ability.

Bob Simmons, another one of Ydraw’s skilled animators, is a great asset to the Ydraw team. Drafted into the army in his earlier years, he was made an illustrator instead of going to Vietnam. After his service, he started freelancing in Southern California doing logos for album covers and movie posters. He graduated in airbrush illustration, moved to Orem, Utah where he started his own animation studio, taught illustration and design courses at BYU, and raised his kids. In his career he has worked for Disney creating the Thief and the Cobbler, designed posters and titles for Thumbelina and All Dogs Go to Heaven, and more. Bob has also worked for Warner Brothers, as well as Don Bluth Studios where he directed special projects, including work as an effects animator. While at Dreamworks, he animated for the Prince of Egypt, and designed various theme parks and theme park rides. And what does he like to do in his spare time? “Anything… as long as it’s creative!”

Jared Beckstrand is another incredibly talented animator here at Ydraw. Born in Long Beach, California, he is the oldest of … 10 … children. As a young boy, if he was not out playing sports, he could be found drawing for hours on end. At age 12 he began receiving commissioned requests for his artwork, most of which were portraits and caricatures. Ever since then, Jared has actively pursued a career in illustration and animation. In 1990 he assisted for Don Bluth Studios, where he worked on the Swan Princess, Thumbelina, Troll in Central Park, and other popular movies. In 1994 he was hired to work for Walt Disney Feature Animation, and stayed on for 10 years where he worked on various projects including Chicken Little, Emperor’s New Groove, Fantasia 2000, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Home on the Range, Pocahontas, Tarzan, Treasure Planet, and many more. In 2004, Jared decided to leave Disney and currently resides in Saint George, UT with his wife and 4 children.

Paige Sevier is the Account Executive here at Ydraw. She was raised in a small town in North Western Montana (no, she’s not a cowgirl) but loves the small town feel. She graduated from Dixie State University in Southern Utah with a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Communications. She is in charge of making sure your every video dream is met. Paige has an obsession with motocross, loves to organize, and continually finds ways to improve the system. If the only food left in the world were cereal- she would be good to go. She believes simplicity is best and will do anything to make sure you are happy.

The first time we met Rex Jones was two days after surgery for a broken clavicle . He walked into our office for a job interview with his arm wrapped in a sling, ice pack on shoulder, and a little tipsy on Lortab. Naturally, we gave him the job. There is no question Rex’s life quest for the perfect body, willingness to bomb hills on his bike, and complete disregard for his own safety has given him some guts. Rex’s job description includes editing whiteboard animation videos and video effects. He is the Photoshop expert in the office and has a passion for photography (he is actually pretty amazing at it too!). We don’t know how to say this but… Rex is kind of a big deal. His hobbies range from acting, to ceramics, and even some wood working on the side. Oh, did we mention he spends his time away from extreme sports pursuing a larger vocabulary? We love Rex and he helps make Ydraw the bomb. Thanks Rex!

Mark Keysor specializes in “constructing” the special effects, the perfect score, and the final touches on Ydraw’s videos. As the final say guy, he gives our videos just the right amount of pizzazz. He is a big part of the reason why Ydraw videos are so awesome. Mark found his calling in life when he picked up his first camera at age six and started editing his very own batman action figure videos. This was before he had his own computer and did all the editing in camera. His interest in editing has led Mark to a very happy, long term relationship with Adobe After effects (congrats Mark!). As an editing prodigy, Mark was destined for whiteboard animation videos and hasn’t looked back since.

Kristen Langston is another one of our project managers at Ydraw. She grew up in South Weber, Utah and even though it’s a smaller town, it’s right next to big cities and she is a city girl at heart. She has big dreams of traveling all over the world. She loves her job and is here to help you through the art phase in the Ydraw process. Customer happiness is important to her and she will do whatever she can to make sure you are happy with your experience.

Annie Miller, a project manager here at Ydraw, is a small town girl with a passion for adventure and a love for all things new and exciting. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Communications from Dixie State University. What can we say? She’s nothing less than what many would call a “people person.” She does anything she can to make our clients happy and your project a success. She is focused and hardworking, determined to meet deadlines and help create videos that, well… INSPIRE!

Bios Coming Soon

Sam Lawlor

Ydraw is an amazing company made up of a team of brilliant people (and obviously ridiculously good looking people) The company began with an Idea and a Question. The question why. We love the quote “When you have a why the how really doesn’t matter.” Our why is to inspire and our passion is video. Instead of you having to sit there and read a boring paragraph of how great we are and how we are the number #1 animation video company. (yes we are great and yes we are #1) We think it would be better for all of us to focus on your company. What are you looking for? What specific message are you trying to deliver? How are you going to keep the attention of your audience? At Ydraw we take care of this for you. We love to create videos that will move people to take action. Our clients are gold to us and we will do what ever it takes to help them succeed. We can take the most complicated message and simplify it in such a way that a child can understand it.